sideways harddrive?

[ditchhopper]

I bought my girlfriend a new case not too long ago that holds up to 5 hdds sideways in the bottom tray. Its been runnin fine for about 2 months and now its starting to stall. You can hear it slow down then speed up again and everything running at the time slows down and speeds up right along with it. Movies.sound,programs, even the mouse pointer. Im wonderin if its hard on the drive to run like that or if maybe I just got a bad one. Its a WD 40gig and I got it the same time as the case. Ive checked the disc for errors (none) and defragged but that didnt fix it. Im gonna try mounting it normally in a free 5.25 bay when I get a chance but I think it may be too late if its already damaged.
The guy at the store said its alright to install them that way but they have misinformed me a couple of times before. The case is built to hold them that way so youd think it was alright. Anyone
know if this is okay or not?

 

[scriptasylum]

I have 3 different drives (see my sig) in a sideways arrangement for a bit longer than that (about 8 months) and have had no problems (yet). I've seen OEM makers mount them this way too so it should be ok. Also, I haven't read any warnings or suggestions from the drive manufacturers saying it is bad to mount them either flat or vertical.

I would check the temps and the cabling. Maybe you have an intermittent cable issue? As long as you have decent airflow the temps should be ok though.

When my original IBM went bad, I did notice some problems similar to what you describe, but at that time, many many of those IBMs went bad so I don't think it had anything to do with drive mounting.

You might want to do a scandisk and see if there are any bad clusters. There are disk integrity checking programs out there that will test the drive. I used the "IBM drive fitness" program to determine when mine went bad, maybe WD has something similar.

 

[ditchhopper]

Temps are nice and cool I switched cables and its the same. Let me ask you this...would it make a difference on which side the drive sits? If your facing the case its sitting on its left side, would setting it on its right make a diff? Im thinkin no but im runnin out of ideas. I will start lookin for disc program to check it but I get the feeling this drive is goin downhill fast.

 

[bruce_ers00]

Drives mounted vertically or horizontally, doesn't matter. I have a Gateway Select system that came with the HDD mounted on it's side and it's been fine since day one. If the drive is going out, I doubt that any HDD detection software is going to pick this up. There probably isn't any errors on the drive so the software is going to see the drive as working fine. I would back up the data on the drive and see about getting a new one.

 

[scriptasylum]

No, I don't think it matters which side it's on. My drives are actually supposed to sit on their left sides (judging by how the mounting holes in the case are drilled, but I mounted them on their right side for more convenient cabling.

I would definitely check out some type of drive testing program.

Im assuming you only have XP installed? If so, are there any folders called FOUNDXXX (the XXX's are numbers starting with 000) in your C:\ drive? Those are what scandisk recovered if it found bad clusters during a scandisk.

 

[Geffy]

Try diggin through the WD website, their Data Life Guard Tools are pretty good, but I havent used them for a while so I dont really know.

 

[ditchhopper]

Agreed. And this will be the 3rd WD ive replaced in a year. Ive been told these are excellent drives but ive had nothin but trouble from them. Maxtor has never let me down.

 

[bruce_ers00]

Maxtor, definitely worth the monies. *L* I have a maxtor. I haven't had a problem yet *knocks on wood*. I also have two WD HDD, no problems there either. It's a win-win for me I guess.

 

[ditchhopper]

Your lucky. Im currently in the development stages of building a WD clawhammer designed exclusively for use with faulty WD hdds. But thats just me. I know alot of people that use them and swear by them.

 

[Smokie]

I have three Lian Li cases and they have the HDD setup on their side. Never had any problems with any of the HDD's in that formation at all in over 12 months.

All HDD"s are Seagate 40G 7200rpm.

 

[Nick M]

I had HDD drives backwards, upside down, vertical, horizontal, tilted, and any other way possible. All worked fine, I'v been doing that with my Fireball for 5 years now, still works like woo-hoo!
Same as everyone else, I'v never seen any warning labels about placing HDDS like this, and I'v seen computers come with them like that.